Thieves Of Virtue
by FusRoDerp
Summary: He had always loved stealing. The thrill of almost being caught and the adrenaline rush while making an escape. Sure it came with troubles as expected, but he never expected to get into this much shit.
1. Chapter 1

Ch1. Chance Meetings & Daring Escapes

13th of Sun's Dawn, 4E183

The heat from the burning sun shone down on the city of Whiterun, showering its inhabitants with the pleasant warmth of Sun's Height. It was just an hour past midday and the market was crowded as was the usual for this time of day. The crowds were loud, people yelling simply to be heard by the person next to them while vendors hollered into the crowed speaking of their wares.

It was the perfect environment for him to practice his newly found hobby. Lucius wove in and out of the crowd, his small six year old frame easily gliding in between the bodies of the local patrons. Nobody would ever notice the little black haired Imperial as he robbed them of their coin, and even if they did, he'd pull the sad puppy dog eye trick. Nobody could say no to his little green eyes.

As he looked around for unsuspecting victims a certain jingle caught his ear. It was the unmistakeable sound of septims in an overflowing coin purse.

He carefully followed the gentle sound until he was right next to his target. It was an unsuspecting Dunmer in light armor, though they didn't have any weapon on them. She was next to the Bannered Mare, and it seemed she was looking for some one, which meant she was distracted.

Lucius took his chance and popped out of the crowd in what seemed like a hurry. bumping into the woman and snagging her coin purse while he mumbled an apology and walked away. He looped behind the local alchemist's shop and made a beeline for the blacksmith's. Once he was sure he was cleared he opened the coin purse and started to count his loot.

"Oh boy that was easy, like stealing as sweet roll from a baby." He let out a small laugh.

"You know, it's not very polite to steal from others." The smooth and quiet voice of a woman cooed from a few yards behind him. It was akin to a rock that had been chipped away and smoothed by the flowing waters of a river.

Lucius turned around, already anticipating for the guards to grab him and haul him back to the Dragons Reach prison. But when he turned around there only stood one person, a Dunmer woman in light armor, with surprisingly no weapons.

He gulped as he now recognized the armor she wore, it was that of the Riften Thieves Guild. With a swiftness akin to that of the wind she was in front of him and had already snagged her coin purse from his hands, counting to make sure nothing was missing. He stood there, not knowing what to do, just waiting for her to make a move.

After another moment of two she had finished counting out her coins and placed her purse into a more secure pocket on her cuirass. She stood there for a moment, eyeing him up and down. It was at least thirty seconds before she spoke again.

"So you want gold, eh?" He simply nodded. "Well then you're in luck." She motioned for her to follow while she made her way up to the Wind District. He continued to follow her until she stopped just behind the Hall of The Dead. "You did a decent enough job as a pickpocket, but not good enough to get away stealing from a trained thief." He nodded along with her as she talked. "Listen, I'm not gonna do anything about you stealing my coin purse, if fact, I actually have a job for you."

His brow furrowed in confusion; first he tries to steal her coins now she was offering him a job?

"What job?"

She smiled a little, tough he could see little else of her face. "Atta boy; any way, I need you to take this letter and bring it to a man in the Bannered Mare. His name is Sabjorn, and if he asks who it's from, tell him it's from a potential investor."

Lucius nodded and the woman took a sealed envelope out of one of her many pockets and handed it to him. He looked at it briefly, noticing the strange bird-like symbol on the seal. Without another word he nodded to her and began running towards the inn.

The crowds in the market had begun to disperse a little, but he still had to weave in between people until he came to the steps of the Bannered Mare. He pushed open the door and began looking around until he found the owner, a blonde Nord woman.

"Excuse me!" he said, getting her attention, "I'm looking for a man named Sabjorn." The woman simply huffed and pointed towards the back room.

He walked inside and saw a man who must've been in his early thirties looking through a book and writing down different bit of information on the page. He was so preoccupied with his writing that he didn't notice the small boy slip in next to him.

Sabjorn started when a small hand holding a letter entered his vision.

"What do you want boy, can't you see I'm very busy!" He ripped the letter from Lucius's hands and began to read, a surprised look coming over his face. When he finished he looked back a Lucius then back at the letter. "Who sent you with this?"

"I don't know, she just pulled me aside and told me to bring this to you." It wasn't the whole truth, but then again, a little lie never hurt anyone before.

"Mhmm." Sabjorn hummed suspiciously, but dismissed his thoughts as a smile formed on his face. "Well, if my new partner wishes to remain silent so be it, go back to the person who sent this letter and tell them I accept." He scribble down a few things on a piece of paper before signing his name and handing it off the Lucius.

He burst out of the Bannered Mare, a smile on his face and coin on his mind as he sprinted all the way back to the hall of the dead. As he rounded the corner a dark ashen skinned hand grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him around the corner. He doubled over, out of breath, while the Dunmer woman waited for him to tell her the news.

"Well, what'd he say?"

"He gave me this letter for you to read." He pulled the letter out of his pocket and held it out for her. In a mere fraction of a second the letter was in her hands and she was urgently reading over the contents.

As her eyes moved over the last words a small smirk formed on her lips. She carefully folded the letter and placed it in a pocket. "You did good work, kid." She nodded her approval and patted him on the head.

She turned to leave, but stopped when he grabbed onto her sleeve. "What about my coin?"

The woman smiled, reaching into her pouch and tossing him a dozen septims. It was a little less than what he'd expected, but seeing as how things could've turned out a lot worse, he wouldn't be complaining. He looked up from the gold on his hand, wanting to thank her, but she was already gone. Lucius shrugged, pocketed his coin and began making his way home, all the while wondering if he'd ever see that strange woman again.

-000-

24th of Evening Star, 4E195

A cold breeze blew threw the dungeon, chilling Lucius to the bone. It would seem that this time he had royally fucked up. Getting caught stealing was one thing, but getting caught stealing from the Jarl was another.

He'd gotten too cocky and been busted by one of the Dragonsreach guards trying to steal from the Jarl's office. He'd been caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Well, it was more like his hands in a giant chest of gold, and that gold being the funds used for the Whiterun Guards.

But besides it all, that wasn't the worst part. He could handle being caught by the guards and being in prison, but it was the chewing out from his father he was dreading.

"Where is he!" Speak of the Daedra.

Lucius cringed as a balding man in his early forty's rounded the corner to his cell. A long scar ran down his left cheek, a souvenir from his service in the Great War. He was Cunero Caius, Lucius's father, and captain of the Whiterun Guards, which honestly made things a bit awkward.

His father stared him down, seething with rage. It was actually quite comical, as Lucius stood a good quarter of a foot above his father, thanks to his mother being a Nord. It was a solid two minutes of silence before his father spoke.

"What the fuck were you thinking!" Lucius opened his mouth to speak but was promptly cut off. "No, never mind, don't speak because I already know the answer. You clearly weren't thinking at all! I mean, stealing from Dragonsreach!? You've really screwed the pooch this time Lucius!"

His father rambled on and on about right and wrong, good and evil and how his mother would be upset about all this. It was something he had grown accustomed to and had learned how to drown it all out. When his father finally finished his tirade Lucius finally got his chance to speak.

"So are you going to let me out or not?"

Caius let out a dry humorless laugh. _I'll take that as a 'no'._

"Oh, son, no. No, no, no, no, no. You obviously need to learn a lesson. You've embarrassed not only yourself, but also your mother and I. I think a nice long stay in my little vacation home here will do you just nicely."

Caius began to walk away, but Lucius was determined to have the last word.

"Fuck you old man!" He shouted down the row of cells while flipping his father the middle finger. He knew it wouldn't get him anywhere and was pointless, but it was something at least.

Lucius moved back to the rear wall of his cell and leaned against it, sliding down against the wall until he was in a sitting position. Closing his eyes he prepared himself for the long wait until his father would let him out of here. Then he heard the faintest sound of boots walking across the stone floor of the prison. When he looked up he saw a face that he'd honestly never expected to see again.

There before him stood that same Dunmer thief that had caught him trying to pickpocket her almost twelve years ago. She had a smirk on her face, thought that's all he could really see, as the rest of her face was shrouded in the shadow of her hood.

"It seems that you've ended up in quite the predicament."

He scoffed and shook his head in mild amusement.

"Yeah, I guess I have. So what do you want from me now?" The thief stood there for a moment, scanning him up and down before speaking again.

"I want to set you free."

"Why?"

"Because You did such a good job for me, now I'm repaying the favor."

He felt like she was being honest, but there was definitely something she wasn't telling him, though at the moment he wasn't very concerned given the situation he was in at the moment.

Before he could give a response the thief had already tossed a small pouch on the floor of his cell. Quickly, he picked it up and rummaged through the small bag. Inside were four lock picks and twenty gold.

"There's a grate in your cell that leads to some underground tunnels; follow those tunnels and you should be able to escape."

He looked up from the pouch to thank the thief, but she had already disappeared. With no other option other than rotting in his cell he looked around the small room for the aforementioned grate. He eventually found it in the right hand corner, under the small bucket that passed for a latrine. Throwing the bucket aside, he quickly found the small lock on the grate and easily picked it.

As the grate swung open he quickly jumped down, and instantly regretted it. In an instant his nose was assaulted by all kinds of putrid stenches. Lifting up his boot he saw that he'd landed in a pile of shit. His nose crinkled at the stench.

The tunnel he currently occupied was pitch black, with only the light from his cells grate providing any kind of light. Using his hands, he felt his way along the wall. These tunnels were absolutely disgusting, filled with both human and animal excrement. He almost wish that he'd stayed in his cell...almost. After wondering for a few more minutes he came across the first source of light head seen in the tunnels.

Only ten or so feet in front of him was a door, where it lead he didn't know, but anywhere was better than here. As he opened the door, he immediately took back what he'd thought when he walked through the door and saw that he was in the guards' barracks.

 _Damn it, what am I supposed to do know,_ he thought. Observing his surroundings, he noticed there was a chest full of guards armor. Without a second though he slipped into the chainmail shirt before pulling on the leather tunic and colors of Whiterun.

He could hear some guards in the next room, probably getting ready for the night shift. He figured he could slip out among them. He grabbed the closest iron sword he could find and slipped the sheath onto the uniforms belt. Cracking open the door he noticed that most of the guards were just about to head out. He slipped a helmet on and ran out to join them.

Lucius managed to slip into the group without being noticed, and followed the closest guard that was making for the main gate. All the while he was sweating nervously, hoping that nobody noticed the extra guard that wasn't supposed to be there. It was about two hundred yards to the gate from the guard barracks, and he was looking over his shoulder almost the entire time.

He knew that there would be a bounty on him once they realized he had slipped out of jail, but he would worry about that later when he didn't have to worry about getting dragged back up the Dragonsreach.

He was a mere fifty feet from the gate when another guard came running to the group he was in.

"A prisoner has escaped from the dungeon, we're organizing a hun at the moment."

Lucius froze where he stood, positive that he would be found out an captured. Or worse. Luckily for him the sergeant who was assigning them their post started barking orders, yelling at a small group of the others to search the Whiterun perimeter.

Realizing this would probably be his only chance, Lucius snuck into the small group of men and followed them through the gate. As the rest of the group split up to search the perimeter he slipped away and hid behind the stables. Lucius quickly slipped out of the Whiterun colors and abandoned the helm.

Without another moments hesitation he took off towards the hills, not knowing where he'd go or what he'd do. But one thing was certain, he was free, and he'd never comeback to this Gods forsaken city.

-000-

The wind blew through the tall branches of a bristling pine, rustling the needles and causing them to fall. A couple of said needles fell on her head and became tangled in her long auburn hair. She paid no mine though as the object of her interest was currently sprinting full tilt towards the tree line a little less the fifty feet away.

When she'd first laid eyes on the lad twelve years ago she hadn't thought much of him. Sure, he was a half decent pickpocket but that hardly qualified him to become a real thief. But there was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on at the time.

So whenever she had been in Whiterun, to pass correspondence to Sabjorn, she'd made a habit of checking in on the kid from the shadows, watching how his skills were coming along. She'd helped him from behind the scenes here and there. She'd actually gotten a little attached, like he was her little protégé. Kinda like how Gallus made her protégé.

She shook those memories from her head as the boy made his way into the tree line, disappearing into the darkness of forest. With him out of sight and on his way, she jumped down from the trees landing with a role and dusting herself off. There wasn't really anything else left to do around here, everything had been set in motion and her plans were coming together.

A dark smirk crossed her lovely lips as she thought of how good revenge would feel. It may take week, months or maybe even years, but eventually, Karliah would have revenge.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch2. The Thieves Guild & A Change Of Plans

13th of Rain's Hand, 4E196

His face was black and covered in dirt and grime, sweat pouring down his face as he exited the ebony mine at Shor's Stone. Lucius had been working in the mines for three months. He had taken the fake name Maximus Manus, for fear of being found out and shipped back to Whiterun. Though, as far as he knew, no one was even a little bit suspicious of the young man.

Working in the mines was hard and honest work. The worst kind of work, in his opinion. He'd rather have his hands buried in coffers of gold and jewels that weren't his. The rush of almost being caught and getting away with a fortune. He lived for that rush, though that was also the reason for his predicament at the moment.

Lucius brushed those thought aside and put his pickaxe down and sat down to rest a moment. As he wiped the sweat from his dirty brow he heard the neighing of horses and the clicking of wheeled on cobblestone.

Looking up from the ground he noticed that the monthly shipment of ebony was about to head out. Which also meant they were going to get payed later that day. Lucius had been saving up to buy passage from Riften to Cyrodiil. He thought that if he could maybe make it to Bruma, he could start over. He noticed Filnjar walk over to the leader of the caravan and start conversing.

It was then that and idea struck him square in the side of the head. If he could steal the coin from that shipment, it could secure him both passage to Bruma and comfortable living for the rest of the year.

Lucious pushed himself up off the ground and made for the nearby water trough, making to look as if he was washing up for the day. As he poured water down his face he listened in closely to the conversation nearby.

"It's good to see you too, cousin, though we should get back to business." He heard Filnjar speaking to the caravan leader.

"Of course. Here's the gold owed, all 4,500 Septims, I counted them out myself."

Filnjar reached up and grabbed the large sack of coins, opening it up quickly and checking the contents. Satisfied, he closed the sack and placed it by his feet, smiling up at the caravan leader.

"Everything seems to be in order, just gotta put this in the safe now." The caravan leader scoffed at this and rolled his eyes.

"Cousin, don't tell me you're still using that antiquated box you call a safe. The lock on that thing is atrocious."

Filnjar chuckled and shook his head.

"Don't worry, Broden, I've already ordered a new safe to be made by Balimund, complete with a top of the line lock." The caravan leader, Broden, smiled and nodded approvingly at the news.

"Good, wouldn't want you to get robbed."

The two conversed for a while longer while Filnjar's workers had the crates of Ebony Ore loaded onto the carts. Lucius had stopped listening though, having gotten all the information he needed.

-000-

15th of Rain's Hand, 4E196

Lucius crept silently in the shadows, narrowly avoiding being spotted by the on duty guard. He crept around the small shack that passed as Filnjar's house. Peaking around the corner he noticed that the guard had just passed by the front door. If his timing was right, the guard would turn up the road in ten seconds and make another round. As if on cue, the guard made a sharp ninety degree turn and started walking up the road past the black smiths.

Lucius silently turned the corner of the house and knelt down next the the door, inserting the lock pick he'd acquired the previous day into the key hole. He began to carefully jiggle the pins into place, sticking his tongue out slightly as he concentrated on not breaking his only lock pick.

As the seconds ticked by he knew the guard would come down the road from the mine any minute; he needed to expedite the process and get out as soon as possible. No less that thirty seconds later he could hear the crunching footsteps of the guard coming down the road, and he still had two more pins left.

Thinking quickly, he picked up a small rock and threw it back in the direction the guard was coming from. It rustled the branches of a tree and landed with a small _thwap_ sound. The crunching footsteps stopped and seemed to turn around. He heard the guard draw his sword and holler, "Who goes there! Show yourself!" before going to investigate.

Lucius let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and quickly got back to work on the lock. Moments later he heard a soft click and felt the door handle give a little.

Slowly, and quietly as possible, Lucius pushed open door the and stepped inside. Crouching now, he looked around, the light from Nirn's twin moons illuminating the whole room in a soft white glow. The first thing he noticed was the large metal safe at the foot of Filnjar's bed, the man himself laying in his night clothes, snoring heavily.

Quietly, Lucius crept his way over to the safe and observed what he was working with. It seemed that this safe was fairly old, an antique even, as the lock could be broken by a mentally deficient toddler. Soon though, he was eating his words as his lock pick broke with a soft snap.

Worriedly, Lucius looked up towards the sleeping man, making sure that he hadn't been roused from his sleep. Luckily, the man appeared to be an heavy sleeper as he didn't so much as shift.

Lucius slumped slightly, both relived he hadn't been caught and wondering what in oblivion's name he was going to do to get this damn safe open. That when he caught the glint of moonlight on metal from around Filnjar's neck.

He carefully snuck over and saw a key on a string around the mans neck, nestled gently into his night shirt. With the touch akin to a soft breeze, Lucius reached out and gently plucked the key from out of the man shirt, and cut the string with his boot knife. As he pulled the key away the end caught on some of the shirt fabric, causing him to fumble with it for a moment before it clattered to the floor.

Lucius cringed, sure he was caught and going straight to jail. Surprisingly, Filnjar simply rolled over onto his stomach, snoring louder than before and scratching his rear.

With both relief and amusement, Lucius let out a huff before picking up the key and moving back towards the safe. Gently, he inserted the key and opened the safe with a small creak as it revealed its treasures.

Multiple pouches packed to bursting with gold Septims filled the safe, the golden glow of the treasure inside hidden by the burlap pouch. He began to stuff his pockets with as many of the pouches as possible, chuckling silently to himself as he did so.

"Hehehe; looks like I've hit the jack pot," he gently whispered to himself. Of course, that was the exact moment his luck happened to run out.

Filnjar shot up in his bed, groggily looking around the moonlight room before his eyes focused on their target, Lucius.

"You!" He exclaimed loudly as Lucius made a break for the door.

The guard must have hear the commotion, because when Lucius slammed the door open, the guard was knocked over on his ass with a loud 'thud'.

Lucius made a beeline up the road towards Riften, hoping to loop around the town and go to Falkreath before leaving for Cyrodiil. Unfortunately, he had made it less than two hundred yards before he smacked face first into another person. Lucius fell backwards, flat onto his rear while the other man seemed to have only been knocked back slightly by the force.

"You might want to watch where you're going, lad. It's rude to run into people like that." The other man spoke in a strange accent, and he wore the same armor as the Dunmer thief that had helped him escape from Whiterun. The man then reached out his hand and picked Lucius up, dusting him off and shooting him a cocky grin.

Just as Lucius was about to thank the man and move on the guard he'd knocked over came running up behind them, breathing heavily.

"Stop there, thief!" He shouted.

The thief who he'd just ran into reached into one of Lucius' pockets and pulled out on of the pouches of gold and tossed it to the guard, giving him a wink and a knowing smile.

"Do me a favor, Holfnir, and just say the kid put up a fight, you didn't have any other choice." The guard looked down at the pouch in his hands, tossing up and down a few time, feeling the weight, before looking back towards the thief.

"And the gold, Brynjolf?"

"The kid ditched it before you caught up and you were unable to find it."

The guard gave a huff as he pocketed the pouch of gold and walked back in the direction of Shor's Stone. Lucius looked back towards Brynjolf, a confused look on his face.

"Why?" He asked. Brynjolf simply shrugged and motioned for Lucius to follow him.

"Well, You did make my job a bit easier." Seeing the confused look on Lucius's face, he reached into his pockets and pulled out all of the pouches of gold that had been in Lucius's pocket. "Guild was planning to rob the place anyways, you just made my job a little bit easier."

As they reached gates of Riften, Brynjolf pulled out one of the pouches and tossed it to Lucius before talking to him.

"Listen, kid, the way I see it you've got two options. One; you can continue on your merry way and find a new place to work or a new score or whatever, I don't care. Or, number two; you can come find me down in the Ratways, work for my organization, and make ten times the coin you'd ever make pulling jobs like that. The choice is yours."

Without another word, Brynjolf turned and walked through the gates, disappearing into the dark shadows the Riften's towering buildings.

Lucius looked down at the pouch in his hand, before walking through the gates too. He was tired and needed sleep after the night he'd had. Though he'd definitely put some thought into what Brynjolf had said.

-000-

24th of Midyear, 4E201

Lucius weaved through the crowd, molding his body to the flow of the traffic. A light brown leather hood covered his facial features, ensuring nobody could single him out if it came down to that. The cuirass he wore bore many pockets and even more that no one could see. Now that he looked the part, all he had to do was play the part.

As he wove in between people, he may or may not have bumped into a few 'accidentally', while also 'accidentally' getting his fingers snagged on the coin purses while the coin purses also 'accidentally' fell into his pockets. In all honesty this was just too easy; the people around Riften were as thick as the grimy water that ran through the sewers, always too occupied by the wares in front of them than paying attention to who's hand was snagging their purse. But, Lucius guessed that worked in his advantage.

As he snagged the purse off of a rather wealthy looking woman he decided it might be time to head back to the Cistern. Lucius walked through the market, making his way past the Temple of Mara to the graveyard where there was a small chamber with a large sarcophagus inside. He pushed the small button on the front and the sarcophagus began to slide back, revealing steps and a small manhole.

Lucius hopped down the manhole as the sarcophagus closed behind him and his feet landed on the cold stone floor of the cistern. It formed a kind of circle with four small stone bridge like structures connected in the center. Around the outside of the circle, beds lined the wall, giving guild members a place to rest. Along the right side of the wall was a small area to practice archery, which was currently being used by Niruin, a Bosmer with a certain affinity for the bow and arrow.

Further along that wall there was a pair of locked double doors. Behind those doors laid the fortune of the Thieves Guild; a small fortune of gold, gems and valuables worth enough to sustain the lifestyle of a king for the rest of ones existence. That being said, it was also the most highly guarded room in the entire guild, the only members having access being the four most senior; Mercer, Brynjolf, Delvin and Vex.

Next the the entrance of the vault was the guild master's desk, that being Mercer's desk. The man himself was currently hunched over the extravagant desk, his eyes running along a piece of parchment. Whatever it said must have not been very bad because his brow was furrowed and he looked quite pissed off. Then again, his brow was always furrowed and he was always pissed off.

"Lad!" A thickly accented voice pulled Lucius away from his analysis of their guild master.

Looking over to the source, Lucius noticed Brynjolf standing by the door the the Ragged Flagon, waving him over. He had one of those serious looks on his face, the type of look he only got when there was some5hing seriously wrong that needed to be fixed. Lucius approached Brynjolf, wondering what had him were so worked up.

"I'm glad I got you, Lad, as I may have a job that requires your...field of expertise." Brynjolf said in a very business-like tone.

"Alright, you've peaked my interest; what's the job?"

Brynjolf nodded and gave Lucius a look that said to follow him.

"I knew I could count on you, follow me."

He motioned for Lucius and they made their way into the Ragged Flagon. It was a rundown little bar that the guild used as a sort of lookout post if anyone came poking around. Honestly, Lucius didn't understand how people were able to keep their drinks down in this place, as it smelled like the ass end of a mammoth.

They sat down at the bar and Vekel the bartender immediately placed two pints of mead in front of them with a nod. Lucius took a long pull off of his pint, the sweet and bitter liquid filling and warming his belly. Brynjolf on the other hand simply placed his hands around his cup and stared into the amber liquid. Normally he had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, always planning a heist or some kind of scam, but not this time.

Noticing that his pint had run dry, Lucius placed his pint back down on the counter and looked over to Brynjolf, who still had that mischievous look on his face.

"Alright, so what is this job that you're so damn excited about?"

Brynjolf's gaze now focused on Lucius, as he began to explain.

"Just about a week ago, our biggest client, Maven Black-Briar, had a very, very serious misunderstanding with one of her honey suppliers, Aringoth." Brynjolf began. "Anyway, long story short is that Aringoth is refusing to sell his honey to Maven for cheap anymore, and I demanding a ridiculously high amount for it. This obviously has Maven in an absolute fit."

So far, Lucius had been able to follow along with the story Brynjolf had been telling, though he was still confused on one thing.

"Where the hell do I fit in here?"

Brynjolf nodded, finally taking a small swing of mead.

"You see, one of our contacts came to us and let it slip that there was an important delivery heading to Goldenglow Estate, where Aringoth keeps his farm. You are going to intercept the courier, take whatever he has and then go the Goldenglow and teach Aringoth a lesson he won't soon forget."


End file.
